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A factory manager at Artitus Industries suggested that tools be assigned to individual employees rather than shared within each workshop. Employees with their own tools would have more incentive to maintain the tools properly, as each employee would suffer all of the costs of improperly maintaining his or her tools. However, several months after Artitus began assigning tools to individual employees in one of its two workshops, it was found that the shared tools in the other workshop had been better maintained.

Which of the following, if true, most helps to explain the Artitus's finding?

A If one user of shared tools fails to keep them in perfect condition, others are likely to begin to neglect the tools even more, with the result that the tools soon become unusable.

B When tools are shared, the condition of any individual tool affects all users at least somewhat.

C An employee using shared tools might be able to increase productivity by neglecting to maintain them.

D More companies assign tools individually than share them among employees.

E The damage from any individual user's failure to properly maintain tools is more difficult to determine with shared tools than with individual tools.

OA is correct and in fact, it's a copy of the below official question:

Hardin argued that grazing land held in common(that is, open to any user) would always be used less carefully than private grazing land. Each rancher would be tempted to overuse common land because the benefits would accrue to the individuals, while the costs of reduced land quality that results from overuse would be spread among all users. But a study comparing 217 million acres of common grazing land with 433 million acres of private grazing land showed that the common land was in better condition.

Which of the following, if true and known by the ranchers, would best help explain the results of the study?

(A): With private grazing land, both the costs and the benefits of overuse fall to the individual user.(B): The cost in reduced land quality that is attributable to any individual user is less easily measured with common land than it is with private land.(C): An individual who overuses common grazing land might be able to achieve higher returns than other uses can, with the result that he or she would obtain a competitive advantage.(D): If one user of common land overuses it even slightly, the other users are likely to do so even more, with the consequence that the costs to each user outweigh the benefits.(E): There are more acres of grazing hand held privately than there are held in common.

A factory manager at Artitus Industries suggested that tools be assigned to individual employees rather than shared within each workshop. Employees with their own tools would have more incentive to maintain the tools properly, as each employee would suffer all of the costs of improperly maintaining his or her tools. However, several months after Artitus began assigning tools to individual employees in one of its two workshops, it was found that the shared tools in the other workshop had been better maintained.

Which of the following, if true, most helps to explain the Artitus's finding?

A If one user of shared tools fails to keep them in perfect condition, others are likely to begin to neglect the tools even more, with the result that the tools soon become unusable.

B When tools are shared, the condition of any individual tool affects all users at least somewhat.

C An employee using shared tools might be able to increase productivity by neglecting to maintain them.

D More companies assign tools individually than share them among employees.

E The damage from any individual user's failure to properly maintain tools is more difficult to determine with shared tools than with individual tools.

Hi ,i THINK THE ANSWER SHOULD BE e.option A hardly focusses on the fact that the shared tools are maintained properly rather it states that they are equally in the same bad state as non-shared tools.how does option A explains artitus's explaination.

when we look at option E - atleast the option says that determining maintainance measures might be crooked and not properly measured.

A factory manager at Artitus Industries suggested that tools be assigned to individual employees rather than shared within each workshop. Employees with their own tools would have more incentive to maintain the tools properly, as each employee would suffer all of the costs of improperly maintaining his or her tools. However, several months after Artitus began assigning tools to individual employees in one of its two workshops, it was found that the shared tools in the other workshop had been better maintained.

Which of the following, if true, most helps to explain the Artitus's finding?

A If one user of shared tools fails to keep them in perfect condition, others are likely to begin to neglect the tools even more, with the result that the tools soon become unusable.

B When tools are shared, the condition of any individual tool affects all users at least somewhat.

C An employee using shared tools might be able to increase productivity by neglecting to maintain them.

D More companies assign tools individually than share them among employees.

E The damage from any individual user's failure to properly maintain tools is more difficult to determine with shared tools than with individual tools.

Hi ,i THINK THE ANSWER SHOULD BE e.option A hardly focusses on the fact that the shared tools are maintained properly rather it states that they are equally in the same bad state as non-shared tools.how does option A explains artitus's explaination.

when we look at option E - atleast the option says that determining maintainance measures might be crooked and not properly measured.

Please explain option A.

Thanks!

Hi Aditi,

The answer cannot be E, since E talks about difficulty in determining the damage done to a particular tool by each worker. But the stimuli states that the 'overall' damage done to shared tools was less than an individual's tools.

I picked A as per the following logic:If any one user fails to maintain the tool perfectly, others would also start neglecting the tools. Hence, there is very high incentive for each worker using the shared tool to maintain the tool properly, else others would also neglect to maintain them.

yes you are right. the answer , though is tempting, can not be E at a closer look

The argument is pretty straight

A company want to give a single tool for employee to foster productivity or whatever it is.......BUT the conclusion shows that is wrong and that the good way to do X is TO SHARE the tools among the employees. Basically the argument is this.

So we must find a reason that shows WHY ?? WHY ??? is better sharing the tools rather than not

A says just this i.e : if we (the employees) do not care of the single various tools we share among us, the tools will become unusable; tha's why the tools are well maintained.

E instead : The damage from any individual user's failure to properly maintain tools is more difficult to determine with shared tools than with individual tools.

But E doesn't say WHY sharing is good, using a comparison between shared and individual tools. It doesn't hold any water.

B.... clearly gives the incentive that since one tool is used by many in a common workshop thereby affecting each of them ....they will all share the responsibility of maintaining that tool and hence the tools at the common workshop will be better maintained.

B.... clearly gives the incentive that since one tool is used by many in a common workshop thereby affecting each of them ....they will all share the responsibility of maintaining that tool and hence the tools at the common workshop will be better maintained.

Request anyone to clarify why A is the answer ?

At first go, I felt none of the answer is good enough and chose B. But now I see it more clearly.

A) says that if individual do not keep the tool in good condition, it will EVENTUALLY become unusable i.e. new tool need to be brought in or there will be no tool to work with. Thus employees will take good care of tools (or the tools will be replaced with tools in good conditions :D ) _________________